Austrian Drought Triggers Emergency Support
AUSTRIA – Farmers battling against a heatwave will receive disaster funding to alleviate the pressure of higher costs and mounting livestock and crop losses.
5 August 2013
1 minute read
Funds will be drawn from the national ‘Disaster Relief Fund’ and are intended to minimise the effects of droughted cropland and pasture on farm incomes.
Feed directives from the government have stated that as pasture land deteriorates and livestock farmers move to buying in fodder, market controls should be in place to maintain affordability.
Agronomists have warned that the approaching harvest is ‘in danger’, with agriculture minister Nikolaus Berlakovich saying that emergency culling is a possibility.
Government money will also cover 50 per cent of crop insurance premiums for vital soybean, maize, potato and cereal crops.
Mr Berlakovich said: "The financial constraints of distressed companies should be solved. The extent of drought is impossible to predict.”
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